Congregations go for `creation care,' one barrel at a time

WASHINGTON (RNS) It was the time in pre-marriage counseling when the
groom has to leave so the priest and the bride can talk alone. So Jamal
Kadri stepped outside Holy Name Catholic Church that rainy day in
Washington, D.C., and watched water pour from the church gutters and
seep into the sanctuary.

The idea hit him like a tidal wave: "My church needs a rain barrel."

Kadri, a water expert at the Environmental Protection Agency who had
recently converted to Catholicism, asked the priest if his contribution
to Holy Name's building fund could be a rain barrel to catch the water,
and channel it to a church garden.